SPOILERS Pyramids Discussion *Spoilers*
- Thread starter Tonyblack
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Okay, continuing to go lead this discussion away from Pyramids, but I was going to get all smarmy and say that Cheers and Frasier were NEVER on Friday nights (they were the centerpieces of the once-magnificent NBC Thursday night comedy cycle), but then I realized that you're talking about when they were broadcast o'er the pond.
Did they really put these on on Friday? In the states, Friday night was traditionally a graveyard night for the networks, where they put limited audience shows (like ABC's awful line up of kid-centered comedies that ran for years and that no one remembers at all) because they figured the attractive demographics they wanted were going out. Cable and an again, stay at home boomer demographic changed this all, of course.
J-I-B
Did they really put these on on Friday? In the states, Friday night was traditionally a graveyard night for the networks, where they put limited audience shows (like ABC's awful line up of kid-centered comedies that ran for years and that no one remembers at all) because they figured the attractive demographics they wanted were going out. Cable and an again, stay at home boomer demographic changed this all, of course.
J-I-B
What's in a day? 
In the UK they were both on around 10:30/11pm slot on Friday on Channel 4. We did have VCRs back then too - we're not entirely behind the times!
So what you did was go to the pub of a Friday night (straight from work if you lived near there) - celebrated the end of the week in the time-honoured way, got kicked out of the pub and into the local chippy/curry house and then either got a takeaway or annoyed the waiters mixing up your order until you got kicked out of there too and THEN you went home and watched the recorded Cheers/Roseanne or whatever :twisted: That was in the SE TV regions anyway - the day may have varied elsewhere although I think not as it was a network show.
Or if you were a stay at home you woke up around 10 and watched the funnies as broadcast and then a nice gory film (or video rental).
I'm gonna talk about You Bastard and maths next (why do you call it math over there BTW?)
In the UK they were both on around 10:30/11pm slot on Friday on Channel 4. We did have VCRs back then too - we're not entirely behind the times! So what you did was go to the pub of a Friday night (straight from work if you lived near there) - celebrated the end of the week in the time-honoured way, got kicked out of the pub and into the local chippy/curry house and then either got a takeaway or annoyed the waiters mixing up your order until you got kicked out of there too and THEN you went home and watched the recorded Cheers/Roseanne or whatever :twisted: That was in the SE TV regions anyway - the day may have varied elsewhere although I think not as it was a network show.
Or if you were a stay at home you woke up around 10 and watched the funnies as broadcast and then a nice gory film (or video rental).
I'm gonna talk about You Bastard and maths next (why do you call it math over there BTW?)
Jan Van Quirm said:
What's in a day? In the UK they were both on around 10:30/11pm slot on Friday on Channel 4. We did have VCRs back then too - we're not entirely behind the times!
Or if you were a stay at home you woke up around 10 and watched the funnies as broadcast and then a nice gory film (or video rental).
I'm gonna talk about You Bastard and maths next (why do you call it math over there BTW?)
In the UK they were both on around 10:30/11pm slot on Friday on Channel 4. We did have VCRs back then too - we're not entirely behind the times! Or if you were a stay at home you woke up around 10 and watched the funnies as broadcast and then a nice gory film (or video rental).
I'm gonna talk about You Bastard and maths next (why do you call it math over there BTW?)
But here in the capitalistic U.S., the Nielsen people who used to run the ratings system (and, therefore, network programming) before Tivo and cable screwed everything up, didn't count VCR and Tivo users. Until the niche cable channels declared that a show with 200,000 viewers was a hit, Lower ratings here = lower commercial revenue = cancellation. Since Friday night ratings were always lower here in the U.S., the networks didn't put their prime programs either on Friday or Saturday night (and mostly still don't).
Not sure why we call it 'math' here only that it's easier to say. Now, can you tell me why you Brits don't use the definite article when you're talking about where people are going, i.e., "After got hit by a lorry, they sent her to hospital."
J-I-B
Because the definite article implies that the speaker and the listener both know which hospital.
I look after children = Any children
I look after the children = My own children, or the children I've just been talking about.
And;
I'm going to the bank = My bank.
PS Math is much easier to say than maths, especially for Japanese people who don't have a "th" sound. Do Americans also say physic not physics?
I look after children = Any children
I look after the children = My own children, or the children I've just been talking about.
And;
I'm going to the bank = My bank.
PS Math is much easier to say than maths, especially for Japanese people who don't have a "th" sound. Do Americans also say physic not physics?
It's only the BBC that doesn't have to take too much notice of ratings - they do take some notice of certain governmental vigilance on sensitive political issues and occasionally capitulate to pressure when Whitehall doesn't want them banging on too much about something embarassing (like Iraq). But what usually happens then is they phone up their mates in the more upright broadsheets and they bang on about it until the BBC has to cover it .
The independent commercial channels have always had ratings which is why we have so much tat like X factor and celebrity beanfeasts like Strictly Come Dancing etc etc
and yes videos etc have had an effect but by and large 'failure' to pull the viewers will get a show cancelled - which is why thank the gods Big Brother will finally sink without trace this year
"After [she] got hit by a lorry, they sent her to hospital." ?
Because it saves time to leave it out? - it's hardly vital is it? It's optional and we could say 'the' hospital or 'a' hospital' but that's where injured people get sent so do we really need any article in there?
We do use them of course and would never say 'they put in the luggage in back' which seems quite popular in your neck of the woods - we'd say 'they put in the luggage in the back'. Grammar is elective obviously when it's verbal and if you're being specific with a place then do you absolutely need to be precise as in
'they drove to the city' (unspecific) and 'they drove to London' (specific) - just a question of style in the end - like satire
Anyway this is boring now and pooh's done the 'academic' reasoning so not wasting any more time on this - need to think about camels and precision targetting...
Except... it's mathematics which is why it's logically maths and the Japanese can call it what they like in their language 8)
.The independent commercial channels have always had ratings which is why we have so much tat like X factor and celebrity beanfeasts like Strictly Come Dancing etc etc
and yes videos etc have had an effect but by and large 'failure' to pull the viewers will get a show cancelled - which is why thank the gods Big Brother will finally sink without trace this year "After [she] got hit by a lorry, they sent her to hospital." ?
Because it saves time to leave it out? - it's hardly vital is it?
It's optional and we could say 'the' hospital or 'a' hospital' but that's where injured people get sent so do we really need any article in there? We do use them of course and would never say 'they put in the luggage in back' which seems quite popular in your neck of the woods
- we'd say 'they put in the luggage in the back'. Grammar is elective obviously when it's verbal and if you're being specific with a place then do you absolutely need to be precise as in'they drove to the city' (unspecific) and 'they drove to London' (specific)
- just a question of style in the end - like satire Anyway this is boring now and pooh's done the 'academic' reasoning so not wasting any more time on this - need to think about camels and precision targetting...
Except... it's mathematics which is why it's logically maths and the Japanese can call it what they like in their language 8)
poohcarrot said:
raisindot said:
Because the definite article implies that the speaker and the listener both know which hospital.
I look after children = Any children
I look after the children = My own children, or the children I've just been talking about.
And;
I'm going to the bank = My bank.
PS Math is much easier to say than maths, especially for Japanese people who don't have a "th" sound. Do Americans also say physic not physics?
I look after children = Any children
I look after the children = My own children, or the children I've just been talking about.
And;
I'm going to the bank = My bank.
PS Math is much easier to say than maths, especially for Japanese people who don't have a "th" sound. Do Americans also say physic not physics?
As for "physics," doesn't it stand for "physical sciences," which would require it to be plural. Technically, the abbreviated form of mathematics should be plural, too, but as you've concurred, when one tries to say "maths" one ends up sounding like Daffy Duck.
Then again, we thrifty, time-saving Yanks ended up removing the letter 'u' from words like colour, which, as an anglophile, I find most regrettable. Still haven't figured out why we spell the color of an elephant "gray" rather than "grey."
Which, I'm glad to say, continues to lead this discussion on a tangent away from 'Pyramids.'
8)
J-I-B
Horses can be gray - grey is a colour, albeit a neutral one. I've practised saying maths all my life so I find it far easier say to than 'math' - plus anyway it sounds completely pretentious, and looks even more so when it's written
Camel's can also be gray BTW and camels are what we are going to talk about tomorrow - how well they can aim their spit in particular and other interesting trivia on the evil-tempered brutes. :twisted:
BTW - we always say 'we're going the gym'
Camel's can also be gray BTW and camels are what we are going to talk about tomorrow - how well they can aim their spit in particular and other interesting trivia on the evil-tempered brutes. :twisted:
BTW - we always say 'we're going the gym'
In this example you used three definite articles.
In each instance there is only one, hence the "the". (although it could be argued that the Prime Minister is two-faced).
The indefinite article is used because it is referring to something for the first time (lemon pie), of which there are many.
On his way to university implies that the Prime Minister is a student.
The headline would be "On his way to (insert university name) university".
Certain words like countries, cities, magazines, airports, languages, meals etc don't use "the".
Also places like home, work, school, hospital, bed etc don't use "the"
In each instance there is only one, hence the "the". (although it could be argued that the Prime Minister is two-faced).
The indefinite article is used because it is referring to something for the first time (lemon pie), of which there are many.
On his way to university implies that the Prime Minister is a student.
The headline would be "On his way to (insert university name) university".
Certain words like countries, cities, magazines, airports, languages, meals etc don't use "the".
Also places like home, work, school, hospital, bed etc don't use "the"
poohcarrot said:
Small Gods at Christmas is quite appropriate.
England's only got two, Oxford and Cambridge, right? It shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.
poohcarrot said:
In this example you used three definite articles.
In each instance there is only one, hence the "the". (although it could be argued that the Prime Minister is two-faced).
The indefinite article is used because it is referring to something for the first time (lemon pie), of which there are many.
On his way to university implies that the Prime Minister is a student.
The headline would be "On his way to (insert university name) university".
Certain words like countries, cities, magazines, airports, languages, meals etc don't use "the".
Also places like home, work, school, hospital, bed etc don't use "the"
In each instance there is only one, hence the "the". (although it could be argued that the Prime Minister is two-faced).
The indefinite article is used because it is referring to something for the first time (lemon pie), of which there are many.
On his way to university implies that the Prime Minister is a student.
The headline would be "On his way to (insert university name) university".
Certain words like countries, cities, magazines, airports, languages, meals etc don't use "the".
Also places like home, work, school, hospital, bed etc don't use "the"
I'm looking forward to talking about camels, since I've ridden them before.
Camels
I can see what Terry was doing with the camels - they are such unlikely creatures, but they are superbly adapted for survival in some of the harshest environments. They seem to have a natural ability to find water - an ability that has probably saved countless human lives.
In Pyramids that ability allows them to (apparently) open a whole river valley that was in another dimension by using complex mathematics. So it would seem that You Bastard is not the only great mathematician in the history of camelkind, as it was Khuft's camels that found Djelibeybi in the first place.
Is Terry saying that complex math(s) can be learned as an evolutionary survival trait?
I can see what Terry was doing with the camels - they are such unlikely creatures, but they are superbly adapted for survival in some of the harshest environments. They seem to have a natural ability to find water - an ability that has probably saved countless human lives.
In Pyramids that ability allows them to (apparently) open a whole river valley that was in another dimension by using complex mathematics. So it would seem that You Bastard is not the only great mathematician in the history of camelkind, as it was Khuft's camels that found Djelibeybi in the first place.
Is Terry saying that complex math(s) can be learned as an evolutionary survival trait?
Well that still works - camels may be naturally good at mathematics. You Bastard is just the best.
Khuft was a camel dealer who was running away due to some dodgy selling he'd done. And suddenly he came across a river valley that doesn't seem to have been there before. In Teppic's dream, he meets Khuft who tells him what happened. Teppic works out that it was the camels that opened the valley from whatever dimension it was in and that's why he goes and gets You Bastard, making sure that he is really thirsty. You Bastard got them out of the country when it had reverted to its previous dimension (due to the Great Pyramid twisting all the dimensions) and it was You Bastard that got them back.
That inspires Teppic to jump ship and find You Bastard. Maybe this is Terry playing science (maths) against religion.
*Any mistakes in this passage are mine in typing - not Terry's.
Khuft was a camel dealer who was running away due to some dodgy selling he'd done. And suddenly he came across a river valley that doesn't seem to have been there before. In Teppic's dream, he meets Khuft who tells him what happened. Teppic works out that it was the camels that opened the valley from whatever dimension it was in and that's why he goes and gets You Bastard, making sure that he is really thirsty. You Bastard got them out of the country when it had reverted to its previous dimension (due to the Great Pyramid twisting all the dimensions) and it was You Bastard that got them back.
That inspires Teppic to jump ship and find You Bastard. Maybe this is Terry playing science (maths) against religion.
*Any mistakes in this passage are mine in typing - not Terry's.
Terry definitely hints at this on page 153:
The fact that he refers to You Bastard's ability being the result of selective evolution certainly suggests to me that he was playing science against religion. This also means that all camels throughout history have, to some degree, been mathematical geniuses (should that be genii, or is that another story?
). I also wonder whether this lack of recognition is the reason for them being the most unpleasantly foul smelling, viscious, evil brutes ever to have existed? :twisted:
The fact that he refers to You Bastard's ability being the result of selective evolution certainly suggests to me that he was playing science against religion. This also means that all camels throughout history have, to some degree, been mathematical geniuses (should that be genii, or is that another story?
Penfold said:
I also wonder whether this lack of recognition is the reason for them being the most unpleasantly foul smelling, viscious, evil brutes ever to have existed? :twisted:
Camels are my favourite animal. I love them. They're just like big naughty dogs.
Here's a photo of the camel that I rode for 5 days in the Sinai.
How could you not love him? Just look at that face! What a cutie.
